SEC Newgate

Italy, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Netherlands, Poland, Spain

SEC Newgate in its current form is just five years old, dating to September 2019 when Italian firm SEC merged with Porta, the holding company that included international corporate and financial specialist Newgate, which had operations in Australia, Asia and the Uk, to form a new international agency. But SEC’s roots stretch back to its founding in Italy 30 years ago, and its international expansion had begun six years earlier, with the acquisition of Brussels public affairs boutique Cambre Associates. Subsequent acquisitions in Madrid, Berlin, London, Warsaw and Paris had created the outline of a genuinely international business, though most of those deals were relatively small.  In 2023, however, the firm received $100m in new investment from Investcorp, enabling an expansion to the Middle East, an acquisition in the Netherlands, and in January of 2024 the addition of V+O, headquartered in Greece but with 180 employees across Greece, Albania, Bulgaria, Cyprus, North Maceodia, Romania, and Serbia.

So today, SEC Newgate has 550 people in 24 offices across 20 countries in Europe (plus eight affiliate offices), and while its core strength is still in corporate communications and public affairs, it has expanded its capabilities to include consumer brand-building, content creation, and digital expertise so that it is increasingly seen as a full-service firm in the region. Issues and crisis management is a particular focus, and the Brussels office also offers an association management capability. The firm’s sectoral expertise is balanced, with significant practices in banking and finance, energy, real estate, professional services, healthcare, infrastructure and logistics, and telecommunications.

Growth—including the acquisition—was about 13% last year, with new clients including Bank of Cyprus, the Business Software Alliance,  Eolo, EPPA (the European Paper Packaging Alliance), GapMed, IBM, Indeed, and Polizei Berlin, while the firm continues to work with Amazon Wed Services, Bayer, CBRE Investment Management, Coca-Cola Company, COIMA, Eurobank, GSK, Mastercard, Nestle and Sodexo. Interesting assignments included representing the European Cockpit Association, a pilots’ group, in an effort to forestall “reduced crew operations” regulations that would have allowed flights with only one pilot; supporting Sodexo in it role as an official supporter of the Paris 2024 Games; supporting Kaufland Bulgaria, the nation’s largest retail chain, to support the underfunded Bulgarian Antarctic Institute; and assisting TELT with corporate image and crisis planning for its construction of a new Lyon -Turin tunnel connecting France and Italy.

While founder Fiorenzo Tagliabue remains global CEO, leadership of Europe is divided between Emma Kane, who heads western Europe including the UK office, and Sebastian Hejnowski, who leads offices in Central and Eastern Europe. The V+O acquisition brought founders Thomas Varvitsiotis and Yannis Olympios into the leadership lineup in 2024; policy expert Malgorzata Stanowska joined as managing director in CEE: and Ludi García, formerly of Marco, was named to the newly-created role of managing director in Madrid. The firm’s efforts to ensure a cohesive culture across its many acquisitions expanded also, with trainings and professional development plans, team-building offsites, volunteerism and pro bono initiatives, and flexible and hybrid work programmes.—PH